Pygmy
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Review
'The boldest book in a long while from an author not exactly unaccustomed to boundary-pushing...ace.' --Grazia
'it's brilliantly conceived, linguistically inventive and extremely rude' --New Statesman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
'it's brilliantly conceived, linguistically inventive and extremely rude' --New Statesman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
'Begins here first account of operative me, agent number 67 on arrival mid-western American airport greater _______ area. Flight ____. Date ______. Priority mission top success to complete. Code name. Operation Havoc. Fellow operatives already pass immigrant control, through secure doors and to embrace own other host family people. Operative Tibor, agent 23; operative Magda, agent 36; operative Ling, agent 19. All violate United States secure port of entry having success. Each now embedded among middle-income corrupt American family, all other homes, other schools, and neighbours of same city. By not after next today, strategy of web of operatives to be established.' Agent Number 67, nicknamed Pygmy for his diminutive size, arrives in the United States from his totalitarian homeland (a mash-up of North Korea, Cuba, Communist-era China, and Nazi-era Germany), as an "exchange student" into the welcoming arms of his Simpsons-spinoff Midwestern host family. Host cow father (he works in the biological weapons complex outside of town), chicken neck mother, pig dog brother, and the disconcertingly self-possessed cat sister introduce Pygmy into the rituals of postmodern American life, which he views with utter contempt. Along with his fellow operatives, all indoctrinated into the mindset of the totalitarian state, he is planning something big, something truly, truly awful, that will bring this big dumb country and its fat, dumb inhabitants to their knees. Pygmy is a comedy. It is also Chuck Palahniuk's finest, most ambitious novel since Fight Club.
--This text refers to the
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Imagine a country containing an amalgamation of all the worst attributes of North Korea, Communist China and Nazi Germany. Children are tested for their future educational and career needs at the age of four, and those who show high potential are whisked away from their parents into state institutions. There they are brainwashed into complete subservience to the state, using a curriculum involving extreme martial arts, political indoctrination, chemical warfare and urban terrorism.
Now move forward to a mid-Western church in America where a female missionary feels such concern for these children that she arranges an exchange visit for a number of them to stay with American host-families. The children arrive in America to have six months of respite from their harsh existence, and as the host-father puts it, to "to sing our songs and share the fellowship of our homes and church". However, unbeknown to these generous-hearted families, these children have been given a plan: their educators have shown them how to wreak "Operation Havoc", a terrible act of destruction on the evil American town in which they have come to stay.
This book is one of the funniest books I have read in a long time. The whole book is written in the first person by one of the children, Operative 67, using a sort of pidgin American which takes some getting used to but provides considerable insight into the regime they have been brought up in.
The book is a satire, but on both cultures. The host-family are a sort of Simpsons-like parody of the ideal American family, mixing a mindless involvement in their church community while indulging in all the excesses of American culture. The immigrant children however are classic communist automatons, parroting ideological phrases in everything they say. Agent 67 for example is surprised that in order to gain training in organic chemistry or nuclear particle flux statistics, American youth must:
I soon got used to the language and found myself paging back through the book to notice subtleties I'd missed earlier. You need to work at this book quite a bit, for its actually very clever indeed and is worth reading twice. The story works forward to its inevitable conclusion, with many hilarious episodes along the way. Pygmy has to take part in every part of the family's life and his commentary on their activities offers a unique perspective on dating, shopping and entertainment. Little do these poor saps realise the hate-filled response of this small child among them whose every act is slowly working towards fulfilment of the mission set for him.
I think is a book I will definitely be keeping on my shelves for future re-reading.
Now move forward to a mid-Western church in America where a female missionary feels such concern for these children that she arranges an exchange visit for a number of them to stay with American host-families. The children arrive in America to have six months of respite from their harsh existence, and as the host-father puts it, to "to sing our songs and share the fellowship of our homes and church". However, unbeknown to these generous-hearted families, these children have been given a plan: their educators have shown them how to wreak "Operation Havoc", a terrible act of destruction on the evil American town in which they have come to stay.
This book is one of the funniest books I have read in a long time. The whole book is written in the first person by one of the children, Operative 67, using a sort of pidgin American which takes some getting used to but provides considerable insight into the regime they have been brought up in.
The book is a satire, but on both cultures. The host-family are a sort of Simpsons-like parody of the ideal American family, mixing a mindless involvement in their church community while indulging in all the excesses of American culture. The immigrant children however are classic communist automatons, parroting ideological phrases in everything they say. Agent 67 for example is surprised that in order to gain training in organic chemistry or nuclear particle flux statistics, American youth must:
I soon got used to the language and found myself paging back through the book to notice subtleties I'd missed earlier. You need to work at this book quite a bit, for its actually very clever indeed and is worth reading twice. The story works forward to its inevitable conclusion, with many hilarious episodes along the way. Pygmy has to take part in every part of the family's life and his commentary on their activities offers a unique perspective on dating, shopping and entertainment. Little do these poor saps realise the hate-filled response of this small child among them whose every act is slowly working towards fulfilment of the mission set for him.
I think is a book I will definitely be keeping on my shelves for future re-reading.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A few years back I would have told you Palahniuk was one of my favorite authors. His work is cutting edge, unique, and always shocking. Each of his works is unique, from other authors and from his own works. Palahniuk has an incredibly imaginative and creative mind. The closest authors to him are: in Canada Douglas Coupland and in the UK Irvine Welsh. But the problem with always shocking and being so unique is each new work must outdo the previous. As such I think I have lost my taste for Palahniuk's writings.
The book is unique, different and well-written. It is the story of Pygmy, one of a group of youths from a totalitarian state that has been sent to the United States, to live with Christian families and experience a better life. At least that is what the Host Families and church believe. Yet in reality these youths have been raised from a young age as agents of the state, part of a planned terrorist attack on the States.
Palahniuk does a great job of dissecting Midwestern life through foreign eyes. It is a satire both of America's fears and of America itself. However the story is just too much - male rape, high school massacre, planned seductions, pregnancies and impregnations. And the whole book is written as a series of dispatches from Pygmy to his home government, written in a halting, misunderstood English. Palahniuk captures a feel about the language, yet still conveys his message.
Palahniuk's books are usually a pleasure to read and so addictive that I cannot put them down. Some I have read more than once, even back to back - finished it and started reading it again. That was not the case this time. Twice I put it down for a few days, and was uncertain I would pick it up again to finish it. This was the first Palahniuk book I have read that I easily predicted the ending; that, in and of itself, was a disappointment. As a book it is okay, but as a Palahniuk book it is disappointing on many levels. For the hardcore Palahniuk fans out there - they will love it. I think I have just lost my taste for his extremism.
(First Published in Imprint 2009-05-29.)
The book is unique, different and well-written. It is the story of Pygmy, one of a group of youths from a totalitarian state that has been sent to the United States, to live with Christian families and experience a better life. At least that is what the Host Families and church believe. Yet in reality these youths have been raised from a young age as agents of the state, part of a planned terrorist attack on the States.
Palahniuk does a great job of dissecting Midwestern life through foreign eyes. It is a satire both of America's fears and of America itself. However the story is just too much - male rape, high school massacre, planned seductions, pregnancies and impregnations. And the whole book is written as a series of dispatches from Pygmy to his home government, written in a halting, misunderstood English. Palahniuk captures a feel about the language, yet still conveys his message.
Palahniuk's books are usually a pleasure to read and so addictive that I cannot put them down. Some I have read more than once, even back to back - finished it and started reading it again. That was not the case this time. Twice I put it down for a few days, and was uncertain I would pick it up again to finish it. This was the first Palahniuk book I have read that I easily predicted the ending; that, in and of itself, was a disappointment. As a book it is okay, but as a Palahniuk book it is disappointing on many levels. For the hardcore Palahniuk fans out there - they will love it. I think I have just lost my taste for his extremism.
(First Published in Imprint 2009-05-29.)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like most people here I have been a fan of Chuck Palahniuk for years, reading everything he has produced religiously and without question. However, I have felt Chuck has started to lose his magic which has driven some of his greater novels, with the production of two of his last three books, Rant and now Pygmy.
Upon reading the synopsis I was very excited to read Chuck's latest installment: the idea of Pygmy, both the person and the story are original and complex. He is a foreign exchange student from a country 'made up of the worst parts Cuba, North Korea, Communist-era China and Nazi-era Germany', intent on terrorising the USA. The story delivered a few laughs, and introduces a lot of interesting thoughts upon cultural diversity, highlighting many problems with our own society which we may not see or might not accept. But for me it seemed far too predictable.
Another issue with the novel is the way that it is written; because Pygmy is recording the events in his Log, as though he was speaking in his Chinese-English, the novel at times is very difficult to follow and in places I could only tell what was going on through the speeches of the Americans, which surreally Pygmy is able to quote accurately in near perfect English, although he himself has very little grasp of the language. As a result of this, whilst reading I wanted to get through the book as quickly as possible, instead of taking my time and enjoying it.
However, during the last 50 pages the best part of the novel comes out, the climax though anticipated, is exciting and I had to my suprise become attached to our protagonist. Unfortunately you have to wade through 200 pages of unsatisfactory background-building to reach the end. Fans of Chuck should definitely pick this one up, but those new to him should begin elsewhere, with Choke, Fight Club, Survivor or Lullaby.
Upon reading the synopsis I was very excited to read Chuck's latest installment: the idea of Pygmy, both the person and the story are original and complex. He is a foreign exchange student from a country 'made up of the worst parts Cuba, North Korea, Communist-era China and Nazi-era Germany', intent on terrorising the USA. The story delivered a few laughs, and introduces a lot of interesting thoughts upon cultural diversity, highlighting many problems with our own society which we may not see or might not accept. But for me it seemed far too predictable.
Another issue with the novel is the way that it is written; because Pygmy is recording the events in his Log, as though he was speaking in his Chinese-English, the novel at times is very difficult to follow and in places I could only tell what was going on through the speeches of the Americans, which surreally Pygmy is able to quote accurately in near perfect English, although he himself has very little grasp of the language. As a result of this, whilst reading I wanted to get through the book as quickly as possible, instead of taking my time and enjoying it.
However, during the last 50 pages the best part of the novel comes out, the climax though anticipated, is exciting and I had to my suprise become attached to our protagonist. Unfortunately you have to wade through 200 pages of unsatisfactory background-building to reach the end. Fans of Chuck should definitely pick this one up, but those new to him should begin elsewhere, with Choke, Fight Club, Survivor or Lullaby.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great words, poor ending
I am surprised so many reviewers found the sentence structure so hard to digest. For me, once you worked it out (takes a page or two) it just rolled along, and I actually quite... Read more
Published 4 months ago by mudmucks
Blowing my mind!
I am..ahem..'reading' this on audiobook, and am on the final chapter, but just wanted to put on record that this is a fantastic book, searing in its dissection of both capitalism... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ian Smith
Not the best of introductions to a new author...
My first shot at a Palahniuk novel. I am not at all impressed by the pigeon used in this book. I like my sentences to be complete. Read more
Published 8 months ago by MCM
Dire and unreadable
This book is written in a mock-Oriental pidgin which I found not only irritating but which also made it very difficult to get to what the writer meant to say. Read more
Published 13 months ago by H. Caldwell
Another Palahniuk great
This is my third favorite Palahniuk book (Fight Club being #1, Survivor being #2).
It's a great book, a challenging read due to the sentence structure, but really worth... Read more
It's a great book, a challenging read due to the sentence structure, but really worth... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Adam F. Dolan M.A.
Small Chancer
Reading a review imagine if entirety was in bizarre sentence structure. This is exactly what you need do if you decide to try Chuck Palahniuk `Pygmy', a novel about a young... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Sam
One of his best
I've never read a bad Chuck Palahniuk book but this one has to be one of his best. Really funny in his usual dark way. Definitely worth reading
Published 18 months ago by JohnnyCash
Addictive
Highly addictive story & cringingly good. Another great book from C Palahniuk.
Its written from the view point of the young agent in question, but didn't take long to get... Read more
Its written from the view point of the young agent in question, but didn't take long to get... Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2009 by R. BAKER
Not his worst but pretty close
Palahniuk has gone for a different writing style for this one which is fresh for him but quite irritating and you will find yourself having to re-read sentences to understand what... Read more
Published on 20 July 2009 by Mr. Alexander W. Murrell
He Has His Edge Back
Reviewing a new Palahniuk is normally a pointless task; either you've read him once and been split into one of two camps (read everything else he does, or never touch his stuff... Read more
Published on 2 July 2009 by K. Sweeney
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